The present invention is in the field of video broadcasting, and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for implanting virtual ads into selected frame-sequences of a broadcast video presentation.
The field of multimedia video advertising has undergone many recent improvements through technology known to the inventors that allows real-time computer-aided editing of digital video presentations. Methods, for example, have been developed for the purpose of inserting video overlays into selected video frames of an offered video. These overlays are used chiefly for the purpose of advertising, and the applications can implant images such as banner ads, independently moving image entities, text blocks, or other graphics displays into selected frame-sequences of a video presentation before or as it is broadcast to an end user.
A typical application for such inserted advertisements is inclusion in broadcast videos of sporting events. Because sporting events are often played at a stadium, a coliseum, or other type of predictable playing environment, information regarding the background of any video presentation covering an event at such locations may often be predictable and standardized. For example, a football game being played and recorded at a popular football stadium, wherein the camera positions are known or knowable, will have predictable regions in it""s viewable background. Such regions include billboard spaces, walls of the arena, walls comprising the stands, scoreboards, areas of the field itself, and so on.
Semi-automated systems known to the inventors use the scheme described above, perhaps provided via access to a scale model of the location, and parameters of a video-camera system used to broadcast from the location, to compute the required information for implanting advertisements into the selected regions of a video. Advertisers then buy space in a video for insertion of their ads into the selected regions. Alternatively, one or more authoring stations may be used wherein authors may interact with real-time video feed to elect and designate regions useful for virtual ads.
The implanted ads are intended to appear to an end user watching the video presentation as if they are really in the stadium or game locale, such as on a fence or billboard, on a definable region of a playing field, on the side of a players dugout, and so forth. The ads described, because they are virtual ads, and may be selectively inserted, may also be selectively presented to selected audiences. Audiences viewing the same video broadcast in different geographic regions may then see different ads, advertising local businesses and products, and so on. In this way, advertising may be more flexible and local, at least, to a large viewing region.
The present inventors are aware of U.S. patents that allow ads to be inserted over fixed regions defined at a sporting event origination location.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,933, issued to Inventors Roy J. Rosser et al. on Nov. 23, 1993 teaches apparatus and methods for inserting virtual content in video at an origination point, but no way to incorporate ads at a downstream point in a manner that lets moving images in the video presentation to occlude the virtual added content to make the virtual content appear more real.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,856, issued Aug. 6, 1996 to the same inventors teaches an xe2x80x9celectronic billboardxe2x80x9d system which allows downstream insertion of virtual content, but in a way that does not allow moving images to occlude the virtual added content to provide a realistic depiction.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,846 issued to inventor Haim Kreitman on Nov. 24, 1998 teaches further apparatus and methods for implantation of virtual content, but does not teach a method for implanting virtual content by testing pixels in a primary video stream in a designated candidate region, and displaying broadcast or virtual alternative pixels in a manner to make the virtual content occludable by moving images in the primary stream. There is no teaching in these patents to any method or apparatus for rendering virtual ads that will appear as though they really exist on the infrastructure at the origination location, by allowing moving images in successive frames to occlude portions of the virtual ads.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that allows virtual ads to be implemented at a user""s premise in a manner such that the ads may be more selective, providing additional granularity in tailoring to selected audiences, and may be based on a variety of criteria, such as demographics. In addition, it is needed that such a system be capable of implementing ads such that they may also share the same frame-sequence and space as real-time images without visual conflict for end users. That is, the ads need to appear even more as though they are real phenomena on the areas they appear to occupy in the broadcast video presentation.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a system for providing virtual alternative display regions in video presentations is provided, comprising an apparatus providing a video presentation on a broadcast network; a video integration apparatus coupled to the network for receiving and processing the video presentation; at least one data set identifying a sequence of video frames in the video presentation, an individual region appearing in each of the frames in the sequence of frames, and a pixel signature comprising an average of red, green, and blue (R,G,B) values over all of the pixels in the individual region, the pixel signature also comprising a specific deviation from the RGB average values; and at least one alternative video region conforming in areal extent to the individual region in the video presentation, the alternative video region comprising alternative pixel values for the pixels in the individual region. The integration apparatus, as each frame of the video presentation is received and processed, tests the pixel values for the individual region in the frame, and for pixel values tested that deviate from the RGB average values beyond the specific deviation, displays the pixel values provided by the video presentation, and for pixel values tested that fall within the specific deviation from the average values, displays the alternative pixels from the stored alternative video region.
In a preferred embodiment the alternative video region comprises an advertisement, and the advertisement or other region may be transmitted to the video integration apparatus by the broadcast apparatus separately from the video presentation. Also in a preferred embodiment there may be plural data sets identifying plural individual regions in the video presentation and plural alternative regions, one alternative region associated with each individual region, wherein alternative pixel presentation is practiced for each individual region.
In another aspect a method for providing virtual alternative display regions in video presentations is provided, comprising steps of (a) providing a video presentation to a video integration apparatus; (b) sending a data set to the video integration apparatus, the data set identifying a sequence of video frames in the video presentation, an individual region appearing in each of the frames in the sequence of frames, and a pixel signature comprising an average of red, green, and blue (R,G,B) values over all of the pixels in the individual region, the pixel signature also comprising a specific deviation from the RGB average values; (c) providing an alternative video region conforming in areal extent to the individual region in the video presentation, the alternative video region comprising alternative pixel values for the pixels in the individual region; and (d) as each frame of the video presentation in the sequence of frames is received and processed, testing the pixel values for the individual region in the frame, and for pixel values tested that deviate from the RGB average values beyond the specific deviation, displaying the pixel values provided by the video presentation, and for pixel values tested that fall within the specific deviation from the average values, displaying the alternative pixels from the stored alternative video region.
In a preferred embodiment of this method, in step (c), the alternative video region comprises an advertisement, and the data set is transmitted to the video integration apparatus separately from the video presentation. There may also be plural data sets identifying plural individual regions in the video presentation and plural alternative regions, one alternative region associated with each individual region, wherein alternative pixel presentation is practiced for each individual region.
In another aspect of the invention a video integration system is provided, comprising apparatus for receiving a video data stream; at least one data set identifying a sequence of video frames in the video presentation, an individual region appearing in each of the frames in the sequence of frames, and a pixel signature comprising an average of red, green, and blue (R,G,B) values over all of the pixels in the individual region, the pixel signature also comprising a specific deviation from the RGB average values; and at least one alternative video region conforming in areal extent to the individual region in the video presentation, the alternative video region comprising alternative pixel values for the pixels in the individual region. The integration apparatus, as each frame of the video presentation is received and processed, tests the pixel values for the individual region in the frame, and for pixel values tested that deviate from the RGB average values beyond the specific deviation, displays the pixel values provided by the video presentation, and for pixel values tested that fall within the specific deviation from the average values, displays the alternative pixels from the stored alternative video region.
In this system, in a preferred embodiment, the alternative video region comprises an advertisement. The data set may be transmitted to the video integration apparatus separately from the video presentation. In this system as well there may be plural data sets identifying plural individual regions in the video presentation and plural alternative regions, one alternative region associated with each individual region, wherein alternative pixel presentation is practiced for each individual region.
In still another aspect of the invention a method for presenting an alternative video region in a sequence of frames in a video presentation is provided, comprising steps of (a) receiving a video data stream by a video integration apparatus; (b) identifying an individual region in a sequence of frames in the video presentation, and a pixel signature comprising an average of red, green, and blue (R,G,B) values over all of the pixels in the individual region, the pixel signature also comprising a specific deviation from the RGB average value; (c) identifying at least one alternative video region conforming in areal extent to the individual region in the sequence of frames of the video presentation, the alternative video region comprising alternative pixel values for the pixels in the individual region; (d) testing the pixel values for the individual region in the sequence of frames; (e) for pixel values tested that deviate from the RGB average values beyond the specific deviation, displaying the pixel values provided by the video presentation; and (f) for pixel values tested that fall within the specific deviation from the average values, displaying the alternative pixels from the stored alternative video region.
In this method, in step (c) the alternative video region may comprise an advertisement. There may also be plural data sets identifying plural individual regions in the video presentation and plural alternative regions, one alternative region associated with each individual region, wherein alternative pixel presentation is practiced for each individual region. Some or all of the alternative displays may be advertisements.
In yet another aspect of the invention a computerized system for editing a video presentation to provide an area for a virtual advertisement is provided, comprising input apparatus for selecting a region appearing in a sequence of frames in the video presentation; and a software routine for analyzing the selected region. The software routine prepares a pixel signature for the selected region by averaging the RGB values of pixels in the selected region and applying a deviation factor. In this system the deviation is computed as the standard deviation for the pixel values in the region. The region selected may be selected from a region library associated with a source of the video presentation.
In still another aspect a method for preparing a region in a sequence of frames in a video presentation for use as a region for added virtual content is provided, comprising steps of (a) taking an average of R, G, and B pixel values for pixels included in the region;(b) applying a deviation to the average values to provide a pixel value range for pixels in the region; (c) creating a data set identifying the region and associating the pixel signature with the region; and (d) providing the data set to an integration system for use in substituting virtual content.
The systems and methods of the invention provide, for the first time, an ability to provide virtual advertisements in video presentations, which are implanted at the client end, wherein the client end could be the end user or the cable operator or the ISP. This facilitates the implantation of virtual advertisements that cater to the local market and can be updated periodically. Moreover, the advertisements appear to be real, in the sense that moving images in the display that would be expected to overlay and occlude the advertisement actually do so.